Chapter 6 – Too Close for Comfort
A tiny string of drool connected Therica’s lips to the floor, where it formed a small puddle in front of her eyes. A human would have passed out hours ago, but even she was getting dizzy after hanging directly upside down for so long. Her ankles and legs were bound up together, hanging from the ceiling, her arms folded up in a tight reverse prayer behind her back, a bondage harness tightly squeezing her bare breasts. Weiss was kneeling down in front of her head, and as she slowly rotated on the spot he came completely into view, looking quite grim, which was bad news for her. A bad mood meant more torture and humiliation for her, but this time something was different, he was holding a small vial filled with dark red liquid.
It took her a second to realise what the red liquid was, even though she had used it herself so many times in the past. Her head was a mess, how could he have possibly gotten his hands on that? All the implications slowly dawned on her, this was very bad, horrible even. This just might be the end of her. She failed to hide her dumbstruck expression and he smirked slightly.
“Recognise it do you? I thought you might.” He murmured. She mumbled something back but it was completely muffled by the ball gag, as usual.
“Here’s what I’m wondering. How long is it going to take before you tell me what this does and how it works? I know you’re going to tell me, because you can’t even imagine the hell I’m going to put you through to get this answer, I’m just wondering how long. Maybe you’ll give up early and make it easy on yourself? Or maybe you’ll hold out for some reason, and I’ll get to have some fun. Those are your two options and they both work for me.” He said slowly and deliberately. Therica swallowed hard almost unintentionally. There was no point denying it anymore, he scared her, especially now. At the same time she knew how important it was that she protect the secret of what he was holding, even while she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold out forever. Her desperate mind tried to convince herself that maybe she could resist long enough for help to come, but that illusion had almost entirely abandoned her. Tears started falling from her eyes down across her forehead, just in anticipation. He loosened the ball gag and pulled it under her chin, drool coming away from her lips in strings.
“Please… Don’t…” She spluttered, weak from his constantly harsh treatment of her.
“Wrong answer, as always. That is, unless you like being my personal fucktoy.” He muttered. She began to protest but was cut off by him shoving the ballgag back between her lips and tightening it again. Walking slowly, he retrieved the riding crop from one side of the room and brought it back to her, Therica now sobbing into the gag almost uncontrollably. He gripped one of her ass cheeks and held it tight like she was a piece of meat, while he ran the crop down the curve of the other cheek, then slowly down her back. She renewed her efforts and started struggling anew, bouncing up and down slightly against the rope tethering her to the ceiling, although Weiss for the most part kept her still in his rough grip. By the time the crop came down on her round ass for the first time, she was already in a full panic from the anticipation alone. Her cries resembled a wounded animal as he unleashed the instrument on her bare body. It was a full hour at least before he even took the ball gag out and let her speak again. In the meantime he beat her with the crop until almost every inch of her body was red and welted, before he cut her down from the ceiling and railed her from behind, grinding her tits into the dirt floor of the basement, taking her almost as a reward after what he felt was hard work on his part. He pulled hard on her hair as he finished inside her, then without stopping got up and dragged her to her knees, the poor girl’s miserable, tear stained face staring back at him in utter fear. He quickly unbuckled the ball gag and grabbed her chin, speaking to her between ragged breaths.
“You ready to talk yet?” He asked, as she choked her drool onto the ground almost involuntarily.
“I… I can’t…” She murmured, delirious from the pain, with no idea where her strength was even coming from. But that didn’t matter to Weiss of course, he was only just getting started, and had nothing but time. Once again he buckled the gag back in and dragged her over to another corner of the room, in which sat an old bathtub, filled with dirty water.
“Let’s see how you feel after going for a swim.” He snarled, dunking her head under the water as she shook her head violently in protest.
With Nikolai gone, Weiss was now back to doing his own reconnaissance, and at least for now he had told himself it would stay that way. It was too dangerous to let anyone else in on his mission. He had almost died searching Therica’s apartment and Milana reduced Nikolai to mere dust in a second. He was forced to admit to himself at this point that he had little idea what he was up against. Capturing and subduing Therica had made him overconfident, but so far his attempts with Milana had forced him to admit that Therica was either a less experienced witch or, much more worryingly, that he had just been lucky. It had also dawned on him just how significant the mountain of information was that she was keeping from him, she was still guarding a treasure trove of secrets, despite what a pathetic mess she was otherwise. The grimoire provided some knowledge, but much of it was useless without interpretation. It occurred to him that if Milana became aware of his presence, there’s no reason to assume that her and the entire coven wouldn’t descend on him in minutes from every corner of the globe and banish him to the netherworld. He had seen some of what witches were capable of, but had no clue what their limits were, so from now on he would assume the worst. And that meant it was simply too risky to let another person act as a liability. He had done months of spying in Sydney to monitor and study Therica’s behaviour and routine before he even thought about acting, and that was the kind of methodology he had to return to. At least for now. The entire situation could be turned on its head by that one vial, the second artefact he had managed to capture from the witches. After seeing it in action during the incident with Nikolai, he knew how important it probably was, but also noticed how casually Milana pulled it out of nowhere, and on a hunch he figured she might have some stashed somewhere. It was an incredibly brazen move, but he managed to search Milana’s bag that night while she was busy with the Commissar, probably taking him to a different room where she could try her magic a second time. He found another vial, probably a huge mistake on her part, maybe because she was distracted by the incident, in which case he had Nikolai to thank. Weiss had no real idea if it was of any use to a human with no magic, but any chance that it had something to do with their ability to charm and enthral others meant that it was worth focusing on. After a full day of the most torturous treatment he had put Therica through as yet, she still wasn’t saying a word about it, which made him more frustrated yet also more hopeful. She had given away important secrets under much less strain, so surely it had to be something worth keeping from him. Alas, for now Therica was holding out so it was back to the basics.
Weiss sat patiently in the square outside the local city hall, waiting for Milana. This was exactly the kind of thing he had done for so long in Sydney, in his notebook he had started a detailed log of her entire routine, which he endeavoured to fill out until he could predict it as accurately as possible. Eventually she showed up at the city hall as expected, probably coming from her apartment, but he preferred staking out a single location and observing it for the day rather than following her, which was far more dangerous. She made her way across the square, some distance from him just as he intended, it was busy there as always but she was easy enough to keep an eye on. He had watched her walk the same path before of course, but it was his patient willingness to make the same observation dozens of times that would allow him to build up a confident picture of her movements over a long period of time. He marked it down in the notebook and was about to close it up when he noticed something else that he hadn’t before. There was someone else watching her, but not from a distance like he was doing, this guy seemed to be following her. The stranger traced her movements through the crowd, keeping a distance but never losing sight of her. It wouldn’t be obvious to anyone in the square but him, since he was already watching so intently and years of practice had made him very good at picking up on anomalies. For a second he was alarmed, thinking that perhaps he had competition, but then he quickly remembered where he was, and the myriad reasons why someone, especially a woman, who was intruding their way into the political space might attract the attention of any number of shady parties. Still, it was interesting, and perhaps even presented an opportunity, though he couldn’t quite figure out how yet. One thing he couldn’t easily see from his viewpoint was the follower’s face, and if anything was to come of this chance encounter it would do nicely to be able to recognise this person if he saw them again. He got up and made his way through the crowd, getting closer to the follower, confident that he was far enough removed from Milana at this point that he could move in to investigate. As he closed the distance and began his own pursuit of the figure through the square, he just managed to glimpse Milana disappearing into the city hall ahead. The follower looked like they were going to head into the building as well, so he moved up to intercept. Using the chaos of the crowd to shield his movements, he approached from the side and purposefully bumped into the stranger, grabbing his shoulder and apologising in a swift movement that took a second at most. It was a well executed manoeuvre, and allowed him a good look at the man’s face, even if it was just for a split second. There was nothing special about him, but Weiss did his best to engrave his features on his mind. He looked just like any other young man from the city, but there was something that gave him pause as he quickly left the square before he could be tracked or studied himself. The man’s face didn’t have the stern look of a political operative or spy, nor the determination of anyone focused on espionage. Instead his expression was neutral, his eyes a little glazed over. He didn’t even seem momentarily bothered by the interruption, though it’s possible he was just focused on what he was doing. Still, something about the man’s face troubled Weiss, and he turned the thought over in his head repeatedly as he returned home.
Therica was in hell. It had been about a week now since Weiss had shown her the vial, and she hadn’t known a moment of comfort since then. A few days ago he had made a horrifying discovery, it was no secret to him that the magic flowing through her veins afforded her a number of superhuman traits, but he hadn’t quite grasped all the implications before now. And so there she was, lying bent over the bathtub in Weiss’ basement, her arms wrenched behind her back in the same position they had been in for days now, completely numb to her. Her knees and ankles were bound tightly together, and a tight collar was wrapped around her neck, choking her slightly as it tethered her to the drain at the bottom of the tub. Her long, blonde hair was pulled back in a very messy ponytail, crudely tied up with a piece of rope that ran down her back to her ass, where it was attached to a huge metallic hook, which ended in a round bulb buried deep inside her asshole. The anal hook was nestled in next to a rubber dildo that sat deep inside her pussy, held in with another length of rope tight against her crotch, leading up to her tightly bound breasts, her nipples clamped hard by small weights that hurt whenever she moved. Her head was bent over the lip of the tub, but for now there was no water inside, as there hadn’t been for the last ten minutes. Although the position put an incredible amount of strain on her body, she savoured these few moments as her face still dripped with freezing cold water and she took in deep, ragged breaths through her nose, her mouth still sealed tight with the ball gag. Her stomach sank as she heard the pipes in the walls start to rattle, she closed her eyes and tried to centre herself. Weiss had satisfyingly informed her how this particular predicament functioned, and she knew that this signalled the end of the few minutes that the water tower in this area needed to repressurise, a process during which everyone’s water was briefly cut off. He used this process to give her time to breathe but it was wildly unreliable and completely out of his control, sometimes it would be hours late, or it wouldn’t happen at all, and if he was out of the house he couldn’t even know. At this point she was only one unlucky day away from accidentally being killed by his torture device. A spark of rage suddenly lit within her and she screamed through the gag as loud as she could, just as the open pipe from the wall started spewing water out into the tub, hitting her right in the face. It was ice cold, and almost sent her into shock the first few times it had happened, though she was more mentally prepared now. He had knocked the faucet off the wall, so the water erupting from the pipe only took a minute to fill the tub, and she was soon completely submerged. As her air was cut off she instinctively started to struggle and buck against the restraints as her body demanded a breath, despite the fact that she knew there was nothing she could do and she would rather lie still and conserve what little strength she had. Her lungs burned as she slowly drowned, and it wasn’t long before she was forced to inhale water through her nose, filling her lungs with water just as had happened every time before. While a normal person would pass out and die shortly after, she stayed conscious despite her own will, and she didn’t die. Her magical constitution extracted the little oxygen she needed to survive from the water, and she stayed awake, constantly feeling like she was drowning. Even she couldn’t live like this forever, but it would be another five or six hours at least until the water stopped and the tiny hole left in the drain would allow the bathtub to empty. This was beyond torture, but she had held out for days so far. She told herself that this was the worst thing he could come up with, if she could just endure this then the secret would be safe, but with every passing hour under the freezing water she felt her resolve slowly weaken. She had no idea whether she could hold out indefinitely. It was hard to track time in her state, but at some point she felt hands undoing the crotch rope and taking the dildo out, before the now familiar feeling of Weiss’ cock sliding into her returned, and he pounded her up against the tub, shifting every binding and knot, straining her body anew.
He was fucking her more for his own pleasure at this point than as an addition to his interrogation techniques, but it didn’t matter. He was still slightly unnerved by his encounter with the stranger the day before and he wanted to take his mind off it. As he gripped her hips and slammed his cock inside her, he took the riding crop from nearby and whipped it down on her round cheeks, hitting the same welts he had created earlier that week. Suddenly, he was interrupted by something he certainly did not hear often, a knock at the door from upstairs. It was only because Therica was lying with her head under the water that it was quiet enough to hear it, but still it was possible that whoever it was had been knocking for some time and he only just noticed. It was probably nothing, but out of an abundance of caution he checked all of Therica’s ropes and made sure she was secure, before he quickly straightened himself out and left the basement, closing and locking the door behind him.
It was dark outside and he couldn’t see anything through the peephole, so he cleared his throat and called out.
“Who’s there?” He asked cautiously, to no answer. He waited another minute or two but the knocking had stopped. Fearing that something might be going on, he quietly undid the multiple locks on the door and slowly opened it a crack. Unable to see anything outside, he opened it a little more and stepped out into the cold night. As he looked down the short staircase that led up to the front door he froze in fear, what he saw was the last thing he expected, and for a moment he prepared himself for the end. Standing there was Milana herself, wearing a sensible brown dress, her hair tied up in a bun. She smiled up at him as he stepped out, and he simply froze, with no idea what to do. There was no point running, she would catch him and kill him, yet he had to do something, staring in fear would only give away what he knew. He forced his brain to produce a sentence.
“Good evening ma’am, how can I help you?” He asked in Russian, trying to sound calm, knowing that if he gave away even a slight trace of nervousness it could sink him.
“Evening comrade.” She replied in perfect English. “I hope you’ll forgive my intrusion at such a late hour but I just had to talk to you.” As she spoke she stepped up to the door, now standing close to him making him back up a few steps into the doorframe. Whatever kind of ruse she was playing, she was very good at it. He would have no reason to expect anything sinister if he didn’t know she was a witch.
“I don’t believe we’ve met.” Was the only safe thing that Weiss could think to say on the fly.
“I know we haven’t met, but I saw you the other day and I knew I had to speak to you again.” She spoke in a soft, demure tone, and took another step towards him, now almost too close for comfort. He took a half step back and tried his best to look bemused rather than frightened. There was no one else around, if she wanted to kill him she could have done it by now the same way she did to Nikolai. She was trying to do something else, maybe charm him as she was doing to the commissar? Was this really all it took for her male targets? Showing up at their homes looking nice and acting like a smitten schoolgirl? Just thinking about it for a second, he had to admit it would work on most people. He needed to do his best to resist without letting on that he knew anything.
“I don’t know what you mean. It’s very late.” He said, taking another half step back, but before he could even rest his foot down she advanced, almost pushing past him into the house. His stomach sank, it seemed he wasn’t going to get rid of her that easy.
“Please, you can’t turn me away, I just want to talk.” She implored, her face giving away no deceit. What did she want from him? What did she know? Clearly not everything… It was time to try and fish for answers. He closed the door quietly and looked her in the eyes, utilising his own skills of deception in defence.
“Why do you want to talk to me? What do you think I can do for you?” He asked quickly, cutting right to the chase while, he hoped, sounding innocuous enough. For the first time she paused half a second before answering, had he caught her on her back foot? Or was it just part of the act?
“But you’re already trying to help me aren’t you? I saw you stop him, that man in the square.” She explained, still looking more like a frightened, vulnerable lady than a witch. Weiss’ stomach sank as he listened. She had seen him! He had completely compromised himself with an assumption that now seemed so stupid, that just because she had walked away it meant she didn’t know she was being followed, and wasn’t somehow aware of what was happening. As he thought it through something else suddenly clicked for him. That look in the man’s eyes, he knew why it was so strangely familiar to him. It was the same look he saw in the eyes of the commissar on the night of that dinner. The man had been charmed. He was already her thrall before he had stopped him. Was he a trap? A defence mechanism? Either way Weiss was in deep trouble now, he could only assume she was here to charm him too, since he wasn’t already dead. He had to turn away to hide his face while he tried to pull his thoughts together. He wasn’t dead yet and he wasn’t charmed either. Maybe she needed something else from him? The silence having gone on a moment too long, he forced out an answer.
“I’ve… Been watching him awhile. He’s been acting strangely. And following women around, it was too far. I had to do something.” The words came out of his mouth before he could properly think them over. He was taking a risk here, assuming the man had a real life outside being her puppet. It could sink him right then, but maybe if he could just convince her that he was only interested in the man and had no idea who she was, maybe she would assume he knew nothing and leave him alone.
“Well… I thank you for your kindness. He was following me, and he is a strange man.” As she spoke, still with a disarming tone, Weiss turned to face her again. Suddenly she was holding a bottle of wine. He could have sworn she didn’t have it on her way in but there it was, and she made no effort to hide it, holding it in both hands in front of her chest, almost presenting it. His look of disbelief prompted her to speak again.
“It’s so rare to find someone doing the right thing in this city, and no good deed should go unrewarded. Especially in these times, please.” She went on, sensing his discomfort but pressing on anyway, making her way to the small table next to the corner of the room that one might call a kitchen. Before he could protest she had set the bottle down, and the swirling red liquid inside only reminded him of one thing.
“Ma’am I’m flattered, I really am, but that’s not necessary. I was simply doing my job.” He protested, moving closer to the table, trying to subtly block her off from the rest of the building, lest she keep inviting herself deeper. But his protests made no difference to her, she brushed them off with another handful of meaningless words and found a corkscrew. Why wasn’t she taking no for an answer? It wasn’t normal behaviour, but perhaps she didn’t care about keeping up normal appearances at this point, which could only spell doom for him. He saw no choice but to play along, taking two dirty glasses from a cupboard and setting them down.
“Sorry about the place, I can’t afford much better.” He said, as she poured out the dark wine.
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t bother me at all. That’s just the time we’re living in right now, great men have found themselves impoverished, while fools run the country.” She murmured, taking her first sip, while offering him his. He hadn’t seen her do anything to the drink, but if she’d been drugging the higher ups of Russia for so many years she would certainly be good at it. He swirled the liquid around in his glass, stalling his first sip as he leaned back against the wall and studied her face. It was perfect, smooth, rounded, a little pale. Every line was in place as if perfectly drawn by an artist, ultimately inspiring as much uneasiness as attraction. He tried not to let the fear seep in, but it was hard.
“You say great men, but clearly you have aspirations of your own. In my experience most people aren’t followed unless they’re going somewhere.” He asked, sitting his glass back down and leaning his fingers on the rim pensively, pretending to forget his drink in a moment of deep thought. If that bothered her she didn’t show it. She sighed and waved the notion away.
“Of course not. What can a woman like me do in the midst of all this chaos? I’m merely trying to survive.” After speaking she took another sip, and the silence was heavy. He pretended to toss this information over in his head, when in reality he knew it was nonsense. She didn’t say anything else, now looking at him expectantly. Feeling as though he could only stall for so much longer, he took the glass in his hands, taking his time to swirl it around again.
“What are you waiting for?” She asked, smiling almost with an amused look. Was she just toying with him? Weiss sighed, almost resigned to his fate as he brought the glass to his lips. But just before he tipped it back, a faint whining sound reverberated through the room, seeming to come from the house itself. Milana raised an eyebrow, and he froze. Before either of them could act, the pipes in the wall started to rattle loudly, the sound coming up from the basement below.
“This plumbing, it’s unbelievable.” Weiss mused, smiling at her. There was another moment of trepidation before a second sound emerged from below, this one much more alarming. A muffled scream. He had told Therica he’d be back before the water switched back on to give her a chance to speak to him. lying to her like that wasn’t above him of course, but screaming her rage into the gag was only par for the course once she realised. The sound carried up with surprising fidelity, he hadn’t counted on anyone else being in the building after all. But Milana simply smiled, and put down the wine.
“This just got interesting. Ligare pedes.” She said, all in one smooth sentence so that he never saw the incantation coming. With a flick of her wrist the magic was directed at him and just like that he couldn’t take his feet up off the ground. He was frozen in place. He opened his mouth to protest but she was quicker, reciting another short incantation, suddenly leaving him unable to speak. Horrified, he brought his hand up to his mouth, feeling nothing but smooth skin where his lips should be. Weiss stared at the witch standing before him in horror, while she simply smiled back.
“I’ll return shortly.” She said, turning to the basement.
Therica had once again been plunged into the water, and had assumed that Weiss was done with her for the night, leaving her to slowly choke, but never drown. Maybe he’d let her speak tomorrow morning, but she’d have nothing to say regardless. All this considered, it took her by surprise when the collar around her neck was suddenly snapped in half and she was roughly yanked out of the tub into the cold air of the basement. As she coughed up pints of water yet again, something even more surprising happened, the rest of her ropes released themselves from her as well. It was such a shock she almost didn’t react to it, but when she opened her eyes any faint spark of hope was extinguished. Milana was still holding her hair tight, her face dripping with water, the gag still lodged between her lips. For the first time in months her hands were free, and she almost forgot to make use of them, undoing the gag and spitting it into the tub.
“Explain yourself sister. Right now.” Milana spat, staring at her with a mix of contempt and fury. She knew she must have looked like a mess, she was soaked, beaten, bruised, covered with cum and dirt and even bits of her destroyed grimoire, glued to her skin. Not to mention the anal hook that sat lodged inside her, a severed length of rope tied to the end.
“Is he dead?” Therica demanded, focusing herself as best she could. She tried to quickly cast a spell but it failed, making her swear under her breath as she reached up and fiddled with the pendants in her mouth, pulling the piercing free.
“Of course not you stupid creature. We need to find out what he knows… What have you done to us? What have you gotten this coven into?” Milana scolded her, finally letting go of her hair and stepping back, shaking her head. As she spoke, Therica cast a series of spells in quick succession, cleaning and fixing herself up as fast as she could, removing the hook and healing any damage Weiss had left her recently.
“We need to kill him. As fast as possib-AH!” Therica started, before shrieking as Milana slapped her across the face.
“He is a HUMAN!” The Russian witch yelled at her. Therica made no attempt to defend herself or her honour. She knew it was coming.
“Now listen to me. You will face a coven tribunal as soon as we can muster one, but first you’re going to help me deal with him. Don’t do anything, just follow my lead.” She went on, as Therica started the more complicated incantations required to summon herself some clothing. She wanted to tell her not to speak to him, not to let him go or try to charm him or anything else, but she knew it wasn’t her place. And after all, Milana had defeated him, seemingly with ease. Perhaps Therica really had just been weak. The only consolation was that she didn’t let him inflict any damage on the rest of the coven. Only her. With shame welling inside her, she nodded at her sister.
Weiss was in the exact same position. Of course he was, he couldn’t go anywhere else if he wanted to. It was his first time experiencing a witch’s spell himself, and it seemed like it might be his last. There was no recourse here, he couldn’t reach anything of use, couldn’t say anything. He was still next to the glasses of wine but even if he wanted to finally try his for some reason, he had no mouth. He couldn’t help but remind himself that this is exactly what he had subjected Therica to every day, nothing to do but wait for their captor to return while dreading what would happen when they did. He breathed out heavily through his nose. If he died tonight, he’d at least be likely the only human of his time to defeat a witch. It was an accomplishment to be sure, but he had simply bitten off more than he could chew. In a final moment of desperation, he tried to reach out to his benefactor, the same one that had saved him from the trap in Therica’s apartment and set him off on this whole course in the first place. But as much as he tried, closing his eyes and thinking of that deep, endless ocean, nothing happened. He was alone.
When the women emerged from the basement, they were expectantly transformed. Milana had completely dropped her guise of an innocent young lady, and Therica was almost unrecognisable. He had forgotten what she looked like when she wasn’t under his control, dressed in a formal black dress similar in style to the one he had caught her in. Her hair and skin were immaculately clean, her features perfect once again. At first he thought it was as if he had never done anything to her at all, but as they got closer he saw it, something in her eyes that he had put there remained. Was it fear? Fury? Or perhaps shame?
“You’ve been a naughty boy.” Milana snapped, bringing him back to the matter at hand. He couldn’t say anything so he tried to simply stare into her eyes. With no mouth he had no expression, which was almost a relief as he had no idea what expression would be appropriate at that moment.
“Let me explain to you first before I ask you anything. I’m sure you’re a big tough guy, and I’m sure you feel like you did pretty well to get here, but needless to say that’s all over now. I only need information from you, and it’s easiest for me if you just tell me now. It’s also easiest for you if you just tell me now, because no matter how tough you think you are, you have never been interrogated by a witch before, and you won’t even make it to dawn.” She spoke slowly and deliberately, and it gave Weiss a strange feeling to hear his own sentiments turned back on him like that. Unsurprisingly, they seemed to have more weight coming from her. By the time she paused her speech, the girls were much closer to him, and it was hard to keep his cool.
“On the other hand, we have nowhere to be. I can do this till dawn. Therica, do you have anywhere to be?” She asked, turning to her sister in a show of theatrics.
“Nowhere at all.” She answered, managing to force a smile as she took one of the wine glasses and brought it to her lips. Just before she could take a sip Milana’s hand stopped her by pressing down on the glass.
“That was his.” She muttered tersely, before stepping forward again towards Weiss and continuing her speech. Therica stayed a step behind her and tried to maintain her composure as she silently cursed Milana for adding one final embarrassment on her in front of this human. Silently, she took the other glass and sipped it, if for no other reason than to not be standing there doing nothing.
“So… Tell me what you know.” Milana demanded, waving away the earlier spell with her hand. Relieved to have his mouth back, Weiss promptly put it to use.
“What I know might surprise you my lady. For one, I know why she couldn’t drink my glass of wine.” He quickly told her. This only elicited a look with some curiosity mixed into the already present anger.
“Ah… I’ve met many humans who have endeavoured to understand our practices. They all tend to have one thing in common, and that is overconfidence. Nothing would have happened if she had drunk that wine.”
“Because you need two different doses… Am I correct?” Weiss almost cut her off mid sentence with his question, leaving her with an almost stunned expression, if only for a moment.
“So.. You must have read some of that book while you were defiling it, then?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“The Grimoire wasn’t as helpful as she was herself.” He corrected her, gesturing to Therica, who seemed to be content quietly savouring the taste of the wine and staying out of this tete-a-tete.
“And certainly not as helpful as having a sample of that particular poison myself.” He quickly added, now looking almost smug. Milana looked a little more shocked this time, there was no denying it.
“Where on Earth did you get that?” She demanded, losing her cool a little.
“You might have been a little distracted the night you murdered my friend, you should keep a closer eye on your bag. That being said, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as what I did with it.” Weiss smiled back. At first she looked angry, then contemplative, then… Almost amused. Then she simply laughed.
“You dosed her with it already didn’t you? Well then, it’s a very good thing she didn’t drink your wine.”
“Yes I suppose so. Or from my point of view, a very good thing that I switched the glasses while you were downstairs.” Weiss finally admitted. Milana dropped her facade at once, turning to face Therica as shock turned to horror on her face. Therica wasn’t quietly drinking the wine, she had taken one sip then… Stopped. She was just standing there, with that same glazed expression over her eyes. Milana’s mouth was open and probably already pronouncing the Latin sounds of a spell, but not before Weiss had spat out a short sentence.
“Gag her now!”
Therica simply flicked her hand and the rubber ball gag that had been lodged in her mouth mere minutes ago flew through the air, magically guided from wherever it was in the basement right into the space between Milana’s teeth, the leather bands closing themselves up around her head and strapping themselves in place perfectly, the buckle clicking tight, making Milana yelp out in surprise as she was suddenly silenced.
“Tie her up.” Weiss barked again. In a panic, Milana’s hands desperately flicked at the back of the gag, trying to force it off her with magic, but with one hand held in place Therica made sure it didn’t budge. All she had to do with the other was reach out while she muttered another spell.
“Accersi instrumentum.” Within seconds a dozen lengths of rope whipped up the stairs into the room like pouncing snakes, making Weiss shield his eyes. He made sure to witness what happened next though, as the ropes all got into formation around Milana, who looked in horror before trying to run. They didn’t even give her enough time to get her second foot off the ground before they coiled around her body at incredible speeds, tightening and manoeuvring as they brought her ankles and thighs together, tripping her over and sending her clattering to the floor in a heap. In the same instant a few lengths found their way around her wrists and elbows, smoothly tightening into menacing knots, outdoing even Weiss’ proficient handiwork. He expected that the spell might be finished but there was still one length of rope whipping around, and in another half second it managed to snake its way into the knot around her wrists and pull it over to the knot around her ankles, tightening to bring the two together, hogtying the witch. The whole process seemed to happen in an instant. She immediately started to thrash around, screaming into the gag, but she was hopeless against the magically tied bindings. As she rolled around in her ankle length dress, Therica stood in a trance, staring into the distance. Weiss spent a few seconds in shock, barely able to believe what he had just pulled off. He quickly snapped out of it and realised that for all he knew Therica could regain her will any second.
“Release me.” He commanded, and with a wave of her hand he could move freely again. He looked down at Milana, who glared at him in fury, already drooling onto the floor, but his attention stayed on Therica.
“How long are you going to obey me?” He asked, wondering if she would answer him truthfully.
“I’ll obey anyone until the end of the lunar cycle.” She said in a monotone voice, looking at him with a neutral expression. So that’s how it worked, the red solution makes the victim susceptible to anyone’s orders, he had just given out his before Milana could. Weiss thought for a second, the lunar cycle… At least he wasn’t in any kind of hurry, the moon wouldn’t be full for at least another week. It explained why so much attention was paid to the moon and the lunar cycle in Therica’s grimoire, he was able to determine its importance but not exactly why it mattered so much. It was time to try something else, after all this is what Milana had been doing to the commissar and whoever else but they didn’t walk around in a stunned trance. He stepped up to Therica, moving cautiously, still nervous that the spell could somehow end any second.
“Listen, from this point on you are my loyal ally and servant. You will obey me and only me. Unless otherwise told you will stay by my side and act natural, defending and aiding me whenever I need.” He said to her carefully.
Therica’s eyes glazed over, she stood completely motionless for a few seconds, her sizable bust heaving in and out as she breathed. After what seemed like an eternity she snapped out of her stupor and looked at Weiss with an odd expression.
“What are we doing here?” She asked completely innocently, as if she was confused more than anything else. Then, looking around, she focused on Milana’s writhing body on the floor.
“And what do you want to do with her?”
Source: reddit.com/r/Erotica/comments/xok1tv/the_witch_hunter_chapter_vi
Absolutely worth the wait for another chapter. Great work!